/PRNewswire/ -- GOJO Industries, a leader in hand hygiene and skin health and inventors of PURELL® Hand Sanitizer, is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness and enlist hospitals across the globe to register as part of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands initiative celebrated annually from May 5 – May 7.

GOJO was one of original members to participate in the WHO initiative, Private Organizations for Patient Safety (POPS).  POPS allows the WHO and private organizations to collaboratively work towards reducing healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) by improving hand hygiene education and awareness. HAIs complicate between 5 and 10 percent of admissions in acute care hospitals in industrialized countries and in developing countries, the risk is two to twenty times higher and the proportion of infected patients frequently exceeds 25 percent.¹

Major health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that handwashing and hand sanitizing with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer are critical in minimizing the spread of germs, especially during times of illness outbreaks.  To raise awareness for effective hand hygiene, GOJO is providing nearly 8,300 units of PURELL Advanced Hand Sanitizer and hand hygiene materials to nearly 40 hospitals during the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign from May 5-May 7 and educating hospitals about taking the WHO pledge.

"Once again, the WHO global movement around hand hygiene in healthcare is showing its amazing vitality among national and local hospitals," said Professor Didier Pittet , M.D., director, infection control programme, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine and Lead Advisor, WHO First Global Patient Safety Challenge: Clean Care is Safer Care .  "We have called upon global leaders in the science and distribution of hand hygiene solutions, like GOJO, a member of the Private Organization for Patient Safety (POPS), to help us spread key messages and tools of the WHO multimodal strategy and the 5 Moments of Hand Hygiene to encourage hospitals throughout the world to take the pledge to improve hand hygiene."

"GOJO is committed to participating with the WHO as a member of the POPS initiative to raise hand hygiene awareness and provide education," said Jim Arbogast , Ph.D., vice president of product development at GOJO.  "In the future, you will see a greater emphasis on electronic compliance monitoring systems as part of the observation and feedback portion of the multimodal strategy, robust education and new transportable products to assist the healthcare professional in practicing good hand hygiene.  The goal is to provide better outcomes with fewer hospital acquired infections."

The WHO First Global Patient Safety Challenge launched in October 2005² aimed at reducing healthcare associated infection worldwide, identified the promotion of hand hygiene practices in healthcare as a priority measure and the entry point to improve infection in Member States.³ In April 2006 the WHO working with more than 100 international experts issued the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Healthcare⁴ with a key element being the concept of, "My five moments for hand hygiene."  Today more than 15,500 hospitals from 164 nations worldwide participate in the annual campaign and have taken the "Clean Your Hands Day Pledge."

In addition, GOJO has sponsored the Canadian Patient Safety Institute's (CPSI) STOP! Clean Your Hands Program in support of their program to coincide with this global initiative. Canadian Healthcare facilities can get more information at www.handhygiene.ca and view educational tools and resources to assist in promoting optimal hand hygiene practices. Three lucky registrants will receive a GOJO Hand Hygiene Care package on behalf of CPSI.

PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer has been a critical solution to many hospitals across the world in preventing the spread of infections in healthcare settings.   Studies have consistently demonstrated the importance of using PURELL Instant Hand Sanitizer in healthcare settings where infection rates in a hospital setting were reduced by 36% reduction in a hospital setting⁵  and 30% reduction in long-term care facilities.⁶ In January 2012, a new formulation, PURELL Advanced Hand Sanitizer was launched and became the only alcohol-based hand sanitizer to exceed the U.S. FDA germ kill requirements in one pump.⁷

To learn more about the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Global Annual Campaign, go to https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/en/.

About GOJO

GOJO Industries, Inc. (www.gojo.com) is the inventor of PURELL® Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer,  and the leading global producer and marketer of skin health and hygiene solutions for away-from-home settings.  The broad GOJO product portfolio includes hand cleaning, handwashing, hand sanitizing and skin care formulas under the GOJO®, PURELL® and PROVON® brand names. GOJO formulations use the latest advances in the science of skin care and sustainability.  GOJO is known for state-of-the-art dispensing technology, engineered with attention to design, sustainability and functionality.  GOJO programs promote healthy behaviors for hand hygiene, skin care and compliance in critical environments.  GOJO is a privately held corporation headquartered in Akron, with offices in the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Japan and Brazil. 

¹ Pittet D, Allegranzi, B, Storr, S, Bagheri N, Dziekan G, Leotsako A, Donaldson, L. Infection control as a major World Health Organization priority for developing countries. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2008, 68: 285-292.

² Pittet D, Donaldson, L. Clean Care is Safer Care : a worldwide priority. Lancet 2005; 366: 1246-1247.

³ Pittet D, Donaldson, L. Clean Care is Safer Care : the first global challenge of the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2005; 26:891-894.

⁴ World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines for Hand Hygiene in HealthCare (Advanced Draft). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2006.

⁵ Am J Infect Control. April 2003 Volume 31, Number 2.

⁶ Am J Infect Control. June 2002 Volume 30.

⁷ Macinga, D, Edmonds, S, Campbell, E, Shumaker, D, Arbogast, J. Efficacy of Novel Alcohol-Based Hand Rub Products at Typical In-Use Volumes. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 2013; 34: 299-301.

(PR Web)-The new TaskMate Go from HealthPostures is now providing low back pain relief in the office for those who have been suffering the effects of prolonged hours sitting at a desk.

Low back pain is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work. Slouching exaggerates the back's natural curves, which can lead to muscle fatigue and injury. Most all computer users will, at some point, experience back pain that interferes with work. Back pain is the second most common neurological ailment in the United States — only headache is more common.

Jen has been an office manager at a dental office for over 18 years and has been experiencing lower back pain from hours of sitting at her desk. She has tried everything from foam wedges to cardboard boxes to create a health sit to stand workplace but only recently found by switching between a sitting and standing position by using the sit to stand TaskMate Go from HealthPostures has offered the best low back pain relief.

Jen states, “I was experiencing low back pain on a daily bases and I was starting to make daily trips to see my chiropractor.” After a month of visiting the chiropractor with little improvements she started to look for different ways to find low back pain relief. “I went out and bought a foam wedge for my chair that was supposed to give my low back more support but that didn't work.” The real solution is to get up and move. People are made to move. Sitting in one position for an 8 hour workday can wreak havoc on your body. Researchers suggest at least half your hours at work should be spent standing up. Using a sit-stand workstation and alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day can bring low back pain relief.

Jen started her research to find a good sit to stand workstation which took some time. “In the mean time I decided to get a cardboard box to put my monitor and keyboard on and put my mouse on the upper part of my desk. This worked for me, but I found myself still looking down a bit and my mouse was so far away that my arm was extended at full length for the entire day. The other drawback was that the cardboard would eventually sag in the middle from the weight of the monitor and then I would have to search for a new box.”

The sit-stand TaskMate Go from HealthPostues was just the answer to what Jen was looking for. It is small in stature as to not take up a lot of desk space and it is very easy to use. “I received my Taskmate Go just a few weeks ago and I can already feel a difference in my body. I am standing nice and tall, I am looking straight ahead and my mouse is perfectly by my side.” The TaskMate Go helps with low back pain relief and is also a popular point of discussion at the front desk. “I have had many of our patients ask about my new work station, where I got it and how it works. I am proud to show them how with just a push of a lever they can easily maneuver the TaskMate Go from standing to sitting position.” Jen is also happy to share with the patients what it is like to have more energy at work. “I tell them how good it is for a person to stand rather than just sit there during very long work days.”

HealthPostures has been providing low back pain relief in the office for over ten years and the new TaskMate Go is newest sit to stand product that is making a big difference for many people just like Jen. “This truly inspired me to have a healthier posture.”

Learn more by visiting https://www.healthpostures.com

Smoking prevention in schools reduces the number of young people who will later become smokers, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. For young people who have never smoked, these programmes appear to be effective at least one year after implementation.

Smoking causes five million preventable deaths every year, a number predicted to rise to eight million by 2030. It is thought that around a quarter of young people may smoke by age 13-15. With a history spanning four decades, prevention programmes in schools try to tackle smoking at an early age before the habit becomes difficult to break. The systematic review aimed to resolve the uncertainty of whether the programmes are effective in preventing smoking.

The researchers analysed data from 134 studies, in 25 different countries, which involved a total of 428,293 young people aged 5-18. Of these, 49 studies reported smoking behaviour in those who had never previously smoked. The researchers focused on this group because it offered the clearest indication of whether smoking interventions prevent smoking. Although there were no significant effects within the first year, in studies with longer follow up the number of smokers was significantly lower in the groups targeted by smoking interventions than in the control group. In 15 studies which reported on changes in smoking behaviour in a mixed group of never smokers, previous experimenters and quitters, there was no overall long term effect, but within the first year the number smoking was slightly lower in the control group.

"This review is important because there are no other comprehensive reviews of world literature on school-based smoking prevention programmes," said Julie McLellan, one of the authors of the review based at the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford in Oxford, UK. "The main strength of the review is that it includes a large number of trials and participants. However, over half were from the US, so we need to see studies across all areas of the world, as well as further studies analysing the effects of interventions by gender."

Some smoking interventions aimed to develop social skills and competency or teach students to resist social pressure to smoke. In the longer term, subgroups of programmes that used a social competence approach or a combined social competence and resistance training approach had a significant effect on preventing smoking in young people who had never smoked at the time of the intervention. No effect was shown in studies that used resistance training alone. Equally, no significant effects were detected in those programmes that used information only or that combined tobacco education with wider school and community initiatives.

Booster sessions did not make any difference to the number of young people who went on to smoke. "We might expect booster sessions to reinforce the effects of the original programmes, but our review didn't find any evidence for this overall," said co-author Rafael Perera, also from the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. "The exception was in studies focusing on general social competence and resistance training, which suggests that the way the curriculum is designed is more important than whether or not booster sessions are provided." 

Roboticists are currently developing machines that have the potential to help patients with caregiving tasks, such as housework, feeding and walking. But before they reach the care recipients, assistive robots will first have to be accepted by healthcare providers such as nurses and nursing assistants. Based on a Georgia Institute of Technology study, it appears that they may be welcomed with open arms depending on the tasks at hand.

More than half of healthcare providers interviewed said that if they were offered an assistant, they preferred it to be a robotic helper rather than a human. However, they don’t want robots to help with everything. They were very particular about what they wanted a robot to do, and not do. Instrumental activities of daily living (IDALs), such as helping with housework and reminding patients when to take medication, were acceptable. But activities daily living (ADL) tasks, especially those involving direct, physical interactions such as bathing, getting dressed and feeding people, were considered better for human assistants.   

The findings will be presented April 27- May 2 at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, France.

“One open question was whether healthcare providers would reject the idea of robotic assistants out of fear that the robots would replace them in the workplace,” said Tracy Mitzner, one of the study’s leaders and the associate director of Georgia Tech’s Human Factors and Aging Laboratory. “This doesn’t appear to be a significant concern. In fact, the professional caregivers we interviewed viewed robots as a way to improve their jobs and the care they’re able to give patients.”

For instance, nurses preferred a robot assistant that could help them lift patients from a bed to a chair.  They also indicated that robotic assistants could be helpful with some medical tasks such as checking vitals.  

“Robots aren’t being designed to eliminate people. Instead, they can help reduce physical demands and workloads,” Mitzner said. “Hopefully, our study helps create guidelines for developers and facilitates deployment into the healthcare industry. It doesn’t make sense to build robots that won’t be accepted by the end user.”

This study complements the lab’s prior research that found older people are generally willing to accept help from robots. Much like the current research, their preferences depended on the task. Participants said they preferred robotic help over human help for chores such as cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry. Getting dressed and suggesting medication were tasks viewed as better suited for human assistants.

LOS ANGELES -- The company you keep in junior high school may have more influence on your smoking behavior than your high school friends, according to newly published research from the University of Southern California (USC).

The study, which appears in the April 12 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, identifies how friends' and parental influence on cigarette smoking changes from junior high to high school.

The research indicates that intervention targets to counteract friends' influence may have more of an effect in junior high than in high school, and that parents remain influential on smoking behavior through high school, indicating another possible intervention target, the researchers said.

"Based on social developmental model research, we thought friends would have more influence on cigarette use during high school than junior high school," said first author Yue Liao, M.P.H., a doctoral student in the department of preventive medicine's Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research (IPR) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "But what we found was friends have greater influence during junior high school than high school. We think the reason may be that friends' cigarette use behavior may have a stronger influence on youth who start smoking at a younger age. During high school, cigarette use might represent the maintenance of behavior rather than a result of peer influence."

Researchers analyzed the first seven waves of longitudinal data from 1,001 adolescents who participated in the Midwestern Prevention Project (MPP), a community-based substance abuse prevention program. Mary Ann Pentz, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine and director of the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Promotion, is the primary investigator of that trial, and a co-author of the current study. MPP is the longest running substance use prevention, randomized controlled trial in the U.S.,; its multi-component community-based program is listed on several national registries for evidence-based substance use prevention. The full trial followed adolescents from age 11 to adulthood, specifically age 37. Participants were first observed in the seventh grade -- during junior high school -- and then again after six months, and then annually through the 12th grade, during high school. Students were asked to indicate the number of close friends and parents, or two important adults, who smoked cigarettes. They were also asked how many cigarettes they had smoked in the last month. The effects of friends' and parents' cigarette use on self-use were assessed from early to late adolescence in order to identify changes in trends and magnitude.

Results confirmed that overall, both friends' and parental cigarette use had significant effects on adolescents' cigarette use during both junior high school and high school.  However, while friends' influence was generally higher in junior high school than in high school, parental influence remained relatively stable between these two periods, with a decreasing trend from 10th to 12th grade. This finding confirms previous research that suggests social units, such as school or community, may exert more influence on youth behavior than parents in high school.

The researchers also observed gender differences in friends' and parental influence. Friends' influence on cigarette smoking was greater for girls than boys during ninth and 10th grade. However, there was an increasing trend in friends' influence from ninth to 11th among boys whereas friends and parents had less influence on girls from 10th to 12th grade.

"Boys tend to foster friendship by engaging in shared behaviors, whereas girls are more focused on emotional sharing. So, it is possible that boys are adopting their friends' risky behaviors, like smoking, as the groups grow together over time," Liao said.

The observations from this study present opportunities for intervention and may help to guide the implementation of adolescent smoking prevention programs, Liao said.

"We observed a big dip in friends' effect on smoking behavior from eighth to ninth grade. Thus, the first year of high school represents an opportunity for interventions to counteract peer influence and to continue to target parents as their behavior remains influential through the end of high school," Liao said. "In addition, teaching students refusal skills during junior high school could be effective in decreasing cigarette use at the beginning of high school. Programs could also promote positive parenting skills to protect children from deviant peer influence."

Liao suggests future research on sibling effects for a more complete picture of familial influence. The current study assessed sibling behavior only during junior high school.

Other USC co-authors include Zhaoqing Huang, M.D., M.A, a doctoral student in the department of preventive medicine, Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research; Jimi Huh, Ph.D., assistant professor of research for the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research; and Chih-Ping Chou, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine.

Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health (grant number R01-DA-027226, Chou, PI).

Reference

Liao, Y., Zhaoqing, H., Huh, J., Pentz, M.A., Chou, C.P. (2013) Changes in friends' and parental influences on cigarette smoking from early through late adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Health. Published online April 12, 2013.

New York, NY,—Eighty-four million people―nearly half of all working-age U.S. adults―went without health insurance for a time last year or had out-of-pocket costs that were so high relative to their income they were considered underinsured, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey. The survey also found that the proportion of young adults ages 19–25 who were uninsured during the year fell from 48 percent to 41 percent between 2010 and 2012, reversing a nearly decade-long trend of rising uninsured rates in that age group. This reversal is likely due to a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, the authors say. The report, Insuring the Future: Current Trends in Health Coverage and the Effects of Implementing the Affordable Care Act, finds that the percentage of Americans who were uninsured, underinsured, or had gaps in their health coverage grew steadily between 2003 and 2010, with the number of underinsured nearly doubling from 16 million in 2003 to 29 million in 2010. However, between 2010 and 2012, the numbers of underinsured adults leveled off, growing to 30 million. The authors say that this is partly a result of slower health care cost growth and lower overall health spending by consumers, combined with declining household incomes. But provisions in the health reform law—such as requiring insurers to cover recommended preventive care without any cost to patients—also are beginning to make health care more affordable for many consumers.

"The early provisions of the Affordable Care Act are helping young adults gain coverage and improving the affordability of health care during difficult economic times for American families," said Sara Collins, Ph.D., a Commonwealth Fund vice president and the study's lead author. "It will be critical to continue to monitor the effects of the law as the major provisions go into effect in 2014 and beyond to ensure it achieves its goal of near-universal, comprehensive health insurance."

Millions Are Struggling to Afford Health Care and Falling into Medical Debt

According to the survey, people are increasingly skipping needed health care because they can't afford it. In 2012, 80 million people reported that, during the past year, they did not go to the doctor when they were sick or did not fill a prescription due to cost. Reports of skipping needed care rose substantially from 2003, when 63 million people did not get care because of cost.

Medical debt also continues to burden U.S. households. According to the report, in 2012, 41 percent of working-age adults, or 75 million people, had problems paying their medical bills or were paying off medical bills over time, up from 58 million in 2005. Nearly one of five (18%) adults were contacted by a collections agency over unpaid bills, and 16 percent had to change their way of life because of medical bills. The report finds that medical debt has substantial consequences: 42 percent of survey respondents who reported having trouble with medical bills, or an estimated 32 million people, had a lower credit rating because of unpaid bills and 6 percent, or an estimated 4 million, had to declare bankruptcy because of their bills.

Impact of the Affordable Care Act

The health reform law has already helped millions of young adults gain insurance coverage and protected people from insurance company practices like cancelling policies retroactively when a subscriber becomes sick, or putting a limit on how much they will pay out in a given year or lifetime. But the bulk of the law's effects will not be felt until 2014, when the health insurance reforms are fully implemented and the new state insurance marketplaces are up and running. Using the survey findings to determine how the Affordable Care Act will impact Americans currently uninsured or underinsured, the report finds that:

• Eighty-seven percent of the 55 million people who were uninsured for some time during the year in 2012 have incomes that would make them eligible for subsidized health insurance through the insurance marketplaces or expanded Medicaid under the law, though coverage is limited to those legally present in the U.S.

• Up to eighty-five percent of the 30 million underinsured adults might be eligible for either Medicaid or subsidized health insurance plans with reduced out-of-pocket costs under the law.

The authors say it is critical that the federal government and the states continue to implement the Affordable Care Act, cautioning that if states don't expand Medicaid as the law originally intended, millions of low-income families will be at risk for being uninsured even after the law takes full effect in 2014.

"The costs of health care and health coverage in the United States have been on an unsustainable trajectory, straining family and government budgets," said Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, M.D. "It is important that lawmakers and regulators across the country take the steps necessary to ensure that all Americans can benefit fully from the law's improvements to the quality, efficiency, and affordability of our health care system."

Additional Report Findings:

• In 2012, about three-fourths of working-age adults with low incomes (less than $14,856 a year for an individual or $30,657 for a family of four)—an estimated 40 million people—were uninsured or underinsured.

• Fifty-nine percent of adults with moderate incomes (between $14,856 and $27,925 for an individual or between $30,657 and $57,625 for a family of four)—or 21 million people —were uninsured or underinsured.

• Adults who were uninsured were less likely to receive recommended preventive care in 2012. For example, only 48 percent of women who were uninsured during the year received a mammogram within the recommended period, compared to 77 percent of those who were well insured all year.

The report will be available at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications.aspx. An interactive graphic will be available at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/Resources.

Study Methodology

The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 26 to August 19, 2012. The survey consisted of 25-minute telephone interviews in either English or Spanish and was conducted among a random, nationally representative sample of 4,432 adults ages 19 and older living in the continental United States. The sample was drawn from a combination of landline and cell phone random-digit dial (RDD) samples.

This report limits the analysis to respondents ages 19 to 64 (n=3,393). Statistical results are weighted to correct for the stratified sample design, the overlapping landline and cellular phone sample frames, and disproportionate non-response that might bias results. The resulting weighted sample is representative of the approximately 183.9 million U.S. adults ages 19 to 64.

The survey has an overall margin of sampling error of +/– 2.3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The landline portion of the survey achieved a 22 percent response rate and the cellular phone component achieved a 19 percent response rate.

The report also presents estimates from the 2003, 2005, and 2010 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Surveys. These surveys were conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International using the same stratified sampling strategy as was used in 2012, except the 2003 and 2005 surveys did not include a cell phone random-digit dial sample. In 2003, the survey was conducted from September 3, 2003, through January 4, 2004, and included 3,293 adults ages 19 to 64; in 2005, the survey was conducted from August 2005 to January 2006 among 3,353 adults ages 19 to 64; in 2010, the survey was conducted from July 14 to November 30, 2010 among 3,033 adults ages 19 to 64.

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation supporting independent research on health policy reform and a high performance health system. 

SAN DIEGO, PRNewswire/ -- Since last fall, children and their families in San Diego County have been receiving medical and dental care in a state-of-the-art mobile clinic as part of an innovative partnership between La Maestra Community Health Centers and the Verizon Foundation.

In many parts of the county, children are living in single-parent homes where neither child nor parent receives medical or dental care.  According to the CDC, there are 4.8 million children in the U.S. who do not have health insurance.

The Verizon Foundation awarded a $90,000 grant to La Maestra last year to help support telemedicine capabilities in the mobile RV clinic and deliver quality healthcare services to patients at schools, housing complexes, community events and key retail shopping areas. This mobile clinic is now equipped with the latest, most advanced telemedicine and X-ray systems technology.  While many healthcare providers are still using film X-ray, La Maestra's mobile clinic will soon add digital capabilities, allowing providers to catch potentially life-threatening conditions far in advance.  The new telemedicine capabilities will also bridge the gap between the mobile clinic and medical clinics, making timely patient-provider consultations more attainable and patients' records more accessible.

With the foundation's support, La Maestra's mobile medical clinic has established a regular schedule on site at five schools in the San Diego Unified School District and in two schools at the National school district (National City) to reach many of these underserved residents.

"Access to medical and dental care is always a challenge for our patient population, and La Maestra is dedicated to expanding opportunities for families in this area," said Zara Marselian , chief executive officer of La Maestra Community Health Centers.  "Many of the children who visit our mobile clinic have never seen a doctor or a dentist before.  Our partnership with Verizon is having an immediate impact and changing people's lives, and it's helping the healthcare system by keeping patients from using emergency rooms for primary medical care."

La Maestra is currently working to expand its mobile clinic to more area schools.

About La Maestra Community Health Centers:

Over the past 23 years, La Maestra Community Health Centers has been dedicated to its mission: to provide quality health care and education; to improve the overall wellbeing of the family; bringing the under-served, ethnically diverse communities into the mainstream of our society through a caring, effective, culturally and linguistically competent manner, respecting the dignity of all patients. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, La Maestra offers a comprehensive range of culturally and linguistically-appropriate services including prevention, treatment, chronic disease management and essential support services to low-income, uninsured and underinsured patients of all ages, including refugees and immigrants from over 30 countries, homeless and veterans. 

About the Verizon Foundation:

The Verizon Foundation is focused on accelerating social change by using the company's innovative technology to help solve pressing problems in education, healthcare and energy management.  Since 2000, the Verizon Foundation has invested more than half a billion dollars to improve the communities where Verizon employees work and live.  Verizon's employees are generous with their donations and their time, having logged more than 6.65 million hours of service to make a positive difference in their communities.  For more information about Verizon's philanthropic work, visit www.verizonfoundation.org; or for regular updates, visit the Foundation on Facebook (www.facebook.com/verizonfoundation) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/verizongiving).

Spring time is the perfect time for dental offices to 'Spring Clean' their patient files. The recently released SmartPractice Spring Dental Marketing Guide was designed to do just that. 

 As a leader in dental patient communications and practice marketing for more than 40 years, SmartPractice is always focused on making it easy and efficient for dental offices to increase productivity. The new Spring Cleaning Dental Marketing Guide makes it easier than ever for dentists, office managers and hygienists to access real, proven information to help them grow their dental practices. Users who download the Spring Cleaning Marketing Guide will have access to step-by-step ideas on how to not only execute, but also track results and achieve their long-term goals for practice growth. 

All practices have untapped revenue potential sitting in the files of their lapsed patients, and it may take more than recall cards to unlock it. SmartPractice Director of Marketing Kristin Uhles adds, "Reactivation is a key part of the overall patient communication program that is easily overlooked. With the recent trend toward automated reminder software, we're finding that dental offices are losing a larger percentage of their production simply because some patients without email or cell phones can fall through the cracks. We know that when the call to action is schedule an appointment, it is all about timing and often requires several reminders during the year...especially for those two years past due."

Dental practices can conduct an annual spring-cleaning mailing using the guide's expert tips, and save big with special insider-only offers.

-The Spring Cleaning Dental Marketing Guide include

-Best practices to for Reactivating Lapsed Patients

-Shareable Facebook content

-Practice Website and Social Media refresh checklist

-Affordable ideas to update dental office design

-Special savings – and much more

-Dental offices can download the Spring Cleaning Marketing Guide now at smartpractice.com/dentalmarketing as a gift.

SmartPractice is a family-owned company serving health care professionals with patient communications, dental practice marketing, promotional giveaways, dental supplies, filing supplies and innovative exam glove solutions for more than 40 years. To learn more, visit smartpractice.com